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2010 Three Hills
October 23 / 24
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This year the Three Hills once again coincided with the full moon in October.
A convoy comprising 3 Patrols (Gills, Benzons), 2 Range Rovers (Jenkin/Ellis, Geach) a Pajero (Muzza Black) a Mazda Eagle (Durrant) and an Irvin's Van (Weare) set off Saturday afternoon for Moon Rock for a night under the stars (or so we thought), but the clouds had other ideas.
The sun showed itself from under the clouds just before sunset and promptly disappeared again, but left behind a spectacular afterglow which made up for its shyness.
The moon likewise spent most of its time behind the clouds, but gave enough light to find the beer without resorting to torches.
We were also treated to a lightning show over Enterprise way, but despite the pessimists' predictions, we did not get wet.
As always, snacks of various types were passed around, and the smoked Eisbeins proved so popular that cooking dinner seemed superfluous. Good food and good company were enjoyed by all. Even the loo had a view.
After a slap up breakfast on Sunday morning we said goodbye to the Weares and the Pajero and welcomed Murray Upton (in yet another Patrol) and Iain Robertson in his little green Willys who both came up for the trail drive.
The climb up Zhekezheke was interesting, with the Patrols making easy meat of the steep boulder section, which proved to be the undoing of the Eagle and a Rangie, both of which had to be towed up the section.
The heat at the top of the hill coming off the granite dwala was intense, so we sat at the edge of the precipice where there was a cool breeze and took in the magnificent views over Makumbi Mission over to Cross Kopje.
The descent of Zhekezheke went without incident and we followed the river line to the dam, inching between the rocks on the shoreline road, past the Dam wall to a group of tall shady trees on the river bank where we had lunch and Pete fixed his Rangie, having bent a rear track rod climbing Zhekezheke. Murray played in the river and got stuck, much to the delight of his daughters, so had to be recovered by another Patrol.
Thereafter we climbed Kite Hill, but decided rather than go to the top, where it would have been baking hot with very little shade, we would descend the VERY steep woodcutters trail down to the old Gum Tree Dip. This is a first gear, low range, feet off the pedals and heart in the mouth descent (where you pray the thing is not going to emulate a Landrover and jump out of gear half way down), followed by a fairly technical river crossing.
All too soon it was over and we popped out onto the main road at a business centre in the midst of Sunday afternoon madness. Time to get outta there.
We were away from home less than 24 hrs and had covered about 100 km in total, yet it felt like we had been away for a long weekend. Such is the magic of the 3 Hills. Mark Benzon.
Participants:
| Michael Gill and Muzza Black | Patrol - Stubby |
| Mark and Hilary Benzon | Patrol - Scratch |
| Peter Benzon / Tammy Ellis / Angus Wild | Patrol - Redd |
| Gareth / Ashleigh and Karla Geach | Range Rover |
| Pete Jenkin and Roger Ellis | Range Rover |
| Owen / Barbara and Amy Durrant | Mazda Eagle 4x4 |
| Iain Roberson / Miller plus Ewan and friend | Jeep CJ5 |
| Murray Upton and his girls Amy and Holly | Patrol - Brutus |
| Carol and Derek Weare | 2WD P/up |
Click here to view the photos from this event
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